Unsealing Emptiness

Unlike the rest, Ozul did not care much about whatever was happening to the Lotus as long as it was natural.

He would have only been troubled if someone had forcibly done something to the Lotus. He had also noticed that one of the petals outside the flower had turned brown, but he was okay with it since it seemed to be a necessary part of its life cycle.

The curiosity in the group only lasted for a couple of minutes, and everyone went back to whatever they were doing before.

Although the Lotus looked weird with the fourth part of it painted brown while the other three petals were pink, the group did not hold any thoughts of checking it out.

A few more minutes passed, and the room gained its previous stillness.

Just then, Ozul again opened his eyes and put his hand on his face, looking through the small gap of his metallic fingers. Some of the people noticed his gesture and suddenly closed their eyes instinctively.

.....

And as expected, another flash of light brightened the whole room. The people weren’t as surprised as before, but it still got them to stand up and take their fighting stance.

Although the whole process was similar to what had happened before, the light’s color had suddenly changed into the blue! So, they were not sure what was about to happen next.

But their worries were unfounded since the room returned to normal when the light vanished. The only difference this time was that one of the petals on the Lotus had now turned dark blue!

Since Ozul had prepared beforehand, he even saw the process where the petal had changed in color from starting from the roots. An even more compressed beam of blue color had transmitted into the thin and delicate stem of the flower, slowly changing the color of the petal as well.

By now, everyone had noticed the new change in the Lotus. One of its petals was brown, the other blue, and the rest two on the outside were still pink in color.

The appearance of another color had made most of the people in the room realize what was happening. They were witnessing the last process of the Lotus before it truly matured!

And the name Elemental Lotus finally made sense to them since there were already two colors on the petals representing two of the Elements.

The color, however, wasn’t the most significant change that they had noticed. It was slight, but the people noticed that the petals were opening a little! By now, they could already see the tips of the petals covered by the four outside.

The petals did not grow continually. It only happened when the bright beams of light flashed.

It made them realize that it wouldn’t be long before the Lotus bloomed. Clive also sighed in relief since he was worried that it might take them weeks to be in this room before the Lotus matured.

It was fortunate for everyone that they had come across the Lotus just when it was about to mature.

Since the people understood the process, they went back to their meditating positions. They anticipated when the next beam of light would flash.

As everyone had expected, another light brightened the room. This time, it was an off-white color. When the light disappeared, and they could see again, there was another petal painted in off-white color right next to the dark blue one.

“What Element is that now?” Blaze curiously asked, poking at Raven.

Raven swatted his finger annoyedly and replied, “It’s Wind. Stop bothering me, and let me concentrate!”

Blaze hurriedly moved away from her after realizing that she was getting annoyed. Others were too engrossed in the new color of the petal to notice how much the density of Mana inside the room had grown to.

The denser the Mana in the atmosphere was, the easier it was for the Mages to control and direct it inside of themselves.

It seemed that each time another petal gained a color, the Lotus had its Mana increased to a whole new level.

Ozul’s lips almost moved to form a small smile since he was satisfied with the Lotus. He wasn’t sure before if the plant was really worth the wait. But each time, the increase in density of the Mana in the Lotus was proof of how much it would be worth after it fully matured.

People went back to their places, waiting for the next flash of light. They already guessed the light to be red in color representing the Fire Element.

It met their expectations, and a bright red light flashed after around twenty minutes of wait, and the last petal on the outside was painted red. At this point, they could clearly see the top halves of the three closed leaves inside the outer four.

Everyone now had all of their attention towards the Lotus except for the trio and people such as Clara, Barry, and Clive. These were the only people who kept cultivating while others had been so engrossed in the Lotus that they did not take advantage of high-density Mana.

The people waited for the next light. Some made their bets on what the next color would be and so on. However, they were all disappointed when nothing happened for the next two hours!

It took the next light for two hours to appear!

A silver-colored light flashed by before disappearing altogether. One of the three petals inside was painted with a metallic silver color. The tip of the three was not joined together anymore either.

People guessed this to be the Metal Element, which was a rare Element for mages to use since its fighting capabilities weren’t really much compared to others.

The next flash of light took another two hours as well. It was yellow in color, painting the second petal yellow. It was the Lightning Element!

At this point, the Lotus as a whole looked really colorful with all the different colored petals.

The next flash of light was a light blue colored one. This one caused the last of the three petals to turn light blue.

The three petals inside had already opened enough for the people to see another two petals inside of them.

Since so much time had passed already, people were not as enthusiastic as they were before. They would only be a little excited each time another petal was colored.

Moreover, no matter how engrossed they were in the Lotus, everyone had realized how much the Mana density had increased in the room.

It was already causing the low ranked Mages to feel a bit overwhelmed! Even when everyone wanted to cultivate as much as could in such an environment, the fear of the unknown in this jungle was more than their excitement.

Each time they thought that it wouldn’t be long that they left this accursed place, it brought a smile to appear on their faces.

Unfortunately for the people inside the room, the next flash of light did not appear until the next day!

Ozul was the only one not surprised by such a big delay. He figured that the last two petals represented the Light and Darkness Element. And they were the most complicated out of all others as well. So of course it would take longer for their process to be done.

Another half a day went by without anything happening until the room suddenly shook a little. People had already been feeling the vibrations whenever the light flashed, but it was like a mini earthquake this time!

A bright sparkly light, unlike that they had experienced before flashed in the room. Even with their eyes closed, the people could feel its intensity.

The light kept on flashing for a whole minute before diminishing!

Everyone slowly opened their eyes, rubbing quickly, and moved their face towards the Lotus to check on its change.

One of the two petals had changed to pure white!

It represented the Light Element which only the people of churches usually practiced in. It was the Element that Ozul hated the most.

Now only the last petal was left and everyone was aware that it would turn black next.

Another day and a half passed by quickly since everyone was focusing on their cultivation. Ozul did not make Raven and Blaze absorb the essence of the drake’s cores since it might make a commotion with everyone present here.

The most anticipated moment arrived when the room shook again before everyone closed their eyes, expecting another blinding light. Only Ozul was an exception to this since he was sure that a light which was black in color wouldn’t really hurt his eyes.

Would it still be called light?! Ozul didn’t know. But he didn’t care either way.

As others closed their eyes, dark smoke took over the room instead of the light. The density in the room caused the low ranked Mages to almost suffocate as they ran back towards the tunnel.

They wanted to get as far away from the Lotus as possible. The Rank-6 Mages were not spared from the pressure either even when they stood in the corners of the room!

As the dark smoke slowly receded into thin air, others could finally gaze onto the Elemental Lotus with all its nine petals of different colors, each representing a different Element!

“So pretty!” Clara suddenly spoke out aloud.

No one took their eyes off of the Lotus until they saw that Ozul stood up from his position...